1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for manufacturing center-filled food products.
2. Description of the Background Art
Center-filled food products are available in great variety and are very popular food items. Examples of such products include candies, pastries and snack items.
Relatively soft and porous pastry items are easily provided with a filling by merely piercing the product with a hollow needle and injecting the filling material. Cream puffs and filled doughnuts are produced in this manner.
Products which are brittle require more sophisticated means of providing a filling. Items such as bread sticks may be filled after baking by boring a hole in the center of the product and then injecting the filling (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,666,485 to Nelson et al., May 30, 1972). This is, however, a relatively time-consuming and complicated process.
Snack products can also be made by extruding a hollow shell of an edible material and simultaneously filling the shell from the inside prior to baking (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,675 to Wisdom et al., Oct. 26, 1971). Such a process is unsuitable for fillings which may be damaged during baking, and generally results in a loss of flavor and texture degradation of fillings which may be used in the process.
Heat degradable fillings may be separately injected into individual extruded hollow dough shells after baking as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,333 to Nelson et al., but such a process is relatively more time-consuming and expensive than a continuous process.
There thus remains a need for a more efficient and less expensive method of filling hardened shells to make center-filled food products.